Gametes In Love

In lieu of Foto Friday last week here is proof that G has the awesomest laugh ever.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1vQIqrhe0M]

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One thing I’ve learned about parenting thus far is that there is the “ideal” or “theoretical” approach to how you’d like to get things done, and there’s the reality of how it actually happens.

So with this in mind, I’m approaching the next parenting hurdle: the “back to work” routine. Four months went by much faster than I expected, and with holidays crammed into December, I kind of feel like this last month has kind of been stolen from me.

Anyway… S and I are trying to figure out who will be doing drop offs and pickups from day care for G. The place opens at 7am and all kids need to be picked up by 6pm. Since S and I each have a 30-60 min commute to work (each way depending on traffic), neither one of us can routinely do both the drop off and the pickup. As such we have to split it up and now the question is “How?”

Following our most recent lactation consultant appointment yesterday things got even more interesting with the new pumping schedule. Up until now I’d wake up in the middle of the night, sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. and pump. I just assumed this would continue once I return back to work, but the lady looked at me like I was crazy and suggested I shift my middle of the night pump to 20 minutes after G’s first morning feed. Uhmn… OK — but this complicates things. So we’re now looking at something like this:

6:00am – Wakeup the parents

6:00-6:10 – Basic hygene

6:10-6:40 – Wake-up G, change diapers, clothes and feed

6:40-7:00 – Take a shower, and get dressed

7:00-7:20 – Pump

7:20-7:40 – Get out of the house

S could do the morning drop-off, provided that while I am changing and feeding G, he takes care of himself, and then gets G from me to take to daycare, while I shower and continue on with my morning activities. Trick there is that he has to be on a train to work shortly after 7:00am, so if we run late, he’s VERY late to get into the office.

Conversely, if I do the morning drop-off, G needs to go back to sleep, or find some way to entertain himself while I spend the rest of my morning getting ready. I just can’t count on this. Although he’s not a morning person (yey, I know at least one thing about my kid’s personality), and so far likes his morning nap, I can’t consistently count on 40 minutes routinely being G-attention-free.

Then if you add my early morning conferences with work, which occasionally start at 6:30am to catch our U.K. colleagues, the plan all goes to hell.

So… if you have any suggestions as to how to execute the no-longer-simple getting out of the house, I’m all ears. And if you could arrange it such that I get to keep my hair while doing it, I’ll send you flowers!

Santa’s come early to our house this year. Although his full generosity won’t be revealed until next week, this particular item will be getting use as soon as possible.

Introducing, the next stage of bum cleanliness: G’s Bum Genius Diapes.

They’re cute, they’re colorful, they hold stuff in. ‘Nuf said.

Yey diapers!

I can’t wait to use them… and I’m sure G-man can’t wait to make his first deposits and spray them with his personal rinse.

G’s not a fan of the tummy time. I’ve tried just putting him on a blanket, using a boppy pillow, putting him on his activity mat. No luck as of yet. It all produces an instantly whining, crying, then shrieking baby.

Today, I tried to get creative using some advice from my fellow Nesties. I lied down on the floor and put him belly down on me so that if he picks up his head a tad he’ll see my face. First reaction upon head-lift produced a smile and a giggle. I’m thinking “Score! Maybe this will be the charm”… and then a millisecond later came the spitup of all spitups.

Of course. All on my neck and then my freshly cleaned sweater. Tasty!

After cleaning his face off, his outfit, my shirt, cleavage and the look of “ew, gross” on my face, I put his burp rag on my belly then G on top. Alas, there ended the smiles of tummy time. Back to crying it went.

Sigh. At this rate, I think I’ll be able to train Neko to roll-over on command before G.

My sole comfort in this is knowing that I haven’t yet met an adult that can’t roll-over. G will get there! He might be walking before it happens, but he’ll roll-over and tolerate being on his belly at some point.

Yesterday marked the 5th (and last) day of exclusively pumping and feeding per the experiment we’re running with our lactation consultant. I cheated once and nursed him instead of a bottle, but every other feeding was as prescribed.

I am happy to report a 6.5oz weight gain over last Monday. 10lb 7.4oz on 12/8, today 10lb 14oz. That’s nekkid baby and everything.

I’m thrilled… but I don’t know what it means. I’ve managed to scrape by the necessary 27oz. It’s been close every day, but I’ve done it. Based on this our lactation consultant thinks it might be an issue with him drawing enough, but I think it’s probably a pairing between that and a supply issue on my end. We’ll be reviewing my tedious data gathering on Wednesday, though, and hopefully that will pinpoint things a little bit more.

The last five days of pumping and feeding have both been wonderful and hell at the same time.

Wonderful because:

1. being able to feed him in the car (even while moving), or in a restaurant, or in a department store… wherever… without having to find comfortable seating, cover up, etc. is nice

2. S gets to do at least one feeding a day and spend time with G. I love daddy and G time. I also love “me” time 🙂

3. I’m not sure if it’s related, but G has slept through the night every night that we did a day of bottle-feeding. I’m talking 7:30pm – 7:00am (sometimes later) sleep through the night with no wake-ups.

Hell because:

1. G and S can both sleep through the night, but I still have to get up at 3am to pump, and stay up late until 10:00-10:30ish to pump once more before sleep.

2. Pumping while interacting with an attention needy child is difficult

3. Have I mentioned how horrible my hands look now? I feel like I do nothing but wash bottles these days. Bottles to pump into, other bottles to feed out of — I have bottles in my nightmares and my hands, I swear, feel like sandpaper.

In a way last week was good practice for when I return to work, but it also makes me realize I’ll get a little of both worlds. I get to feed G half of the time, and he gets a bottle the other half.

So that’s our news. We have one week of a weight gaining baby. We still have a ways to go in order for him to get back on the graph (he’s still below the 3rd percentile for his age group), but hey, it’s a step forward.